Ruins of homes, buildings and ceramic barrels fill the site of Akrotiri, a 3,600 year-old Minoan archaeologic site on the Greek island of Santorini. The town and its objects of daily life were buried and preserved by volcanic ash from a massive eruption of the volcano on Santorini. No trace of human remains have been found, leaving their fate a mystery. Photo by Doug Oakley, fall 2017

A sculpted baroque triton, a mythological Greek god known as the messenger of the sea, graces the Fontana del Moro at the southern end of the Piazza Navona, in Rome, Italy. The fountain was designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575. Photo by Doug Oakley

Members of the Greek military march in an Ohi Day celebration and parade in Fira, the capital of the Greek island of Santorini. Ohi Day commemorates the day in 1940 when Greek leaders said "no" to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's demand to occupy part of Greece. Photo by Doug Oakley

Visitors approach an archway amid the ruins of Pompeii, Italy on a clear, warm fall day. The city was buried and preserved by about 20 feet of ash on August 24, 79 AD by an eruption of the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius. Pompeii was first rediscovered in 1599 with more intense excavations beginning in 1748. Today Pompeii receives about 2.5 million visitors a year. Photo by Doug Oakley, fall 2017.

All that remains of the entrance, or the Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis, in Athens, Greece are majestic columns and some rooftop pieces, but the surviving columns help to envision how the original structure was built around 450 BC. The gateway was commissioned by Pericles at the end of the Persian Wars. Photo by Doug Oakley, fall 2017.